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Aggressor (US Armed Forces)
Background Aggressor was an attempt by the US armed forces to make war-games more realistic by having an adversary that behaved and looked differently then those being trained (in other words, not just splitting a group in two). A completely fictional background was developed for Aggressor including political philosophy, language (Esperanto) and uniforms. 4 basic manuals were published with updates over the years: * FM30-101: Aggressor the Maneuver Enemy * FM30-101A: Esperanto - The Aggressor Language * FM30-102: Handbook on Aggressor Military Forces * FM30-103: Aggressor Order of Battle * FM30-104: Aggressor Representation FM30-101, -101A and 102 (versions 1947 and 1959) as well as rank overviews are digitised and hosted on archive.org. Over time, wargames began to adopt a stronger emphasis on fighting the USSR and it's allies so that the aggressor entity was dropped in favour of adversaries more overtly based on warsaw pact countries. Rank Insignias More then likely in an effort to keep cost down, the uniforms and insignias either reused standard US ones but in a different manner or ones that could be made easily and cheaply on the go. The first style of Aggressor rank insignias, worn from the beginning of the program until a period between 1960 and 1962, reused US NCO chevron but pointing down and sewn on the lower sleeves for lower ranks with the addition for some of small circular pips or US major rank insignia. For officers, it used 1-3 second lieutenant's bars for company officers, 1-3 major's leaves for field officers and a combination of major's leaves and cavalry officer's lapel pins for general and marshals (the later replaced by air force lapel pins for the air force's generals). The following images are based on the US Department of the Army publication: FM30-101 (1953) Non Commission Officers aggressor_nco01.png|Private 25th Artillery Division aggressor_nco02.png|Senior Private 43rd Tank Division aggressor_nco03.png|Corporal 19th Airborne Division aggressor_nco04.png|Section Sergeant Headquarter Company, First Army aggressor_nco05.png|Platoon Sergeant 56th Riffle Division aggressor_nco06.png|Senior Sergeant 3rd Artillery Corps aggressor_nco07.png|Staff Sergeant High Command Headquarter aggressor_nco08.png|Sergeant Major 4th Mechanised Corps Officers aggressor_off01.png|Warrant Officer aggressor_off02.png|Sub-Lieutenant aggressor_off03.png|Lieutenant aggressor_off04.png|Captain aggressor_off05.png|Major aggressor_off06.png|Commandant aggressor_off07.png|Colonel aggressor_off08.png|General of Brigade aggressor_off09.png|General of Division aggressor_off10.png|General of Corps aggressor_off11.png|General of Army aggressor_off12.png|Marshal Uniforms The basic uniform was a standard US army shirt and pants dyed a "jungle green" shade with black boots and green webbing. The helmet was the normal one worn at the time with a painted wooden crest attached to its vent holes. A walking out dress was prescribed that was identical save that a black tie was worn and black shoes and a side cap replaced the boots and helmet. Some formations had slightly different uniform items: * Fusiliers (elite): red beret or side caps and red shoulder slides or patches were worn by both enlisted and officers * Airborne: as fusiliers but officers wore plain shoulder straps. * Armoured / Mechanised: black beret * Cavalry: high boots & jungle green felt hat * Missile Units: wore a white triangle with a green upright missile in it on left breast pocket. Branches/units were indicated by patches made of plain pieces of cloth with words or numbers stenciled on them in black (white for engineer). * riffle: red * airborne: '''pale blue * '''artillery: '''white * '''tank/mechanised/cavalry: yellow * engineer: black * signal: '''tan * '''chemical warfare: '''purple * '''propaganda: orange * miscellaneous: medium blue Corps or division was indicated by a rectangular patch worn on the upper right sleeve with black arabic number for division and roman ones for corps * riffle: red * airborne: '''pale blue * '''artillery: '''white * '''tank/mechanised/cavalry: yellow Personnel attached to headquarters wore a white rectangle bordered black instead of a corps / division patch. Army number was spelled out in black ("UNO") while army groups had their name or abbreviation in black ("NORDO"). Personnel attached to high command simply wore a red triangle on the upper right sleeve. The manual also encouraged officers to customised their uniform and one colour plate shows a fully decked out general with visor cap, lanyard, baton and decorative stripes. One marine reported that during an exercise he took part in playing aggressor, his unit decided to wear collar tabs with the word "marsol" (short for "marsoldato" ["sea soldier"]) demonstrating that even non-officer would have been allowed to deviate from the guidelines. Though the uniforms and organisation of both the army and air force are described in details in the manuals, the navy isn't. A few mentions are made of them and a drawing exist of a sailor who appears to wear the same basic uniform as other aggressor personnel but wearing white US navy enlisted headgear and a blue scarf tied around the neck. Rank insignias (if any) are impossible to make out. Category:United States of America Category:Army